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Making the Case for the Sprint/T-Mobile Merger: Rural America's Fighting Chance

It’s crazy to think that in a world as technologically advanced as ours, there are still parts of the U.S. that lack the ability to connect to wireless networks or have broadband access speeds capable of completing even the simplest of tasks – like checking email. However, for much of rural America this is the reality today.

As 5G technologies emerge and promise to bring stronger networks and faster speeds, it’s become critical that these underserved areas are finally reached. That’s the stance currently being taken as the case is made for the proposed Sprint/T-Mobile merger on Capitol Hill.

The $26.5B deal would not only create a shake up in the mobile market in the U.S., but more importantly, officials stressed at a recent hearing committee, it would bring much needed wireless connectivity to the most unreached population in the U.S. - some 62 million rural Americans according to reports.

No only would the merger create a much needed “third” leading national carrier in the U.S., but T-Mobile would become the first 5G heavyweight.

With 5G technology, users will gain data speeds more than 100 times faster than what 4G LTE provides and while the costly development efforts have been a hotly debate subject regarding the merger, the companies said by combining they’ll be able to dedicate $40B in private investment to improve infrastructure and add new needed technologies that will finally diminish the digital divide that still exists even in 2019.

Even though there’s been large strides made in convincing policy advisors at the White House why the merger would be a great thing, there is still approval needed from the FCC and the DOJ Antitrust division before the deal can move forward.

With about a month to go until the deadline for the merger to happen, the next steps are going to be focused on economic and national security fronts and proving that this deal would be a win for consumers and the public.

Web-scale Networking

The idea of Web-scale IT is more than just another 'hot' buzzword or problematic disruption. What started with data center operators has become mainstream thinking in large enterprises, and it's now driving changes in service provider operations, as well. Web-scale tools that allow application development to move quickly have also created some challenges for service provider networks.